


Is He Okay?

by starker



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-04
Updated: 2012-08-04
Packaged: 2017-11-11 09:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 11,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/477063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starker/pseuds/starker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony didn't remember how long ago the last time he'd seen Bruce. He'd stopped counting years ago, he just knew it had been too long now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Too Long

Tony was outside of Bruce's apartment. Well, was in the parking lot, inside of his car, looking up at the penthouse. After years and years of not seeing him, after wondering whether or not he was dead or alive, after searching high and low for the world's most elusive man, he had found him. And for once, he wasn't sure if he even wanted to see him.  


That's bull. Of course he wanted to see him, he just didn't know if he could handle seeing him, or if Bruce could do the same.  
If Bruce was anything like the last time Tony saw him, he would have no doubt that he could control himself. Tony almost broke down into tears thinking about the last time he saw Bruce…  


Tony didn't remember how long ago the last time he'd seen Bruce. He'd stopped counting years ago, he just knew it had been too long now.  


10 years. 10 years was the year that Tony stopped counting. It wasn't because Tony didn't care about Bruce anymore, because that's basically all he cared about. It was because Tony was out of money and drunk and couldn’t even tell you his full name or that he used to be Tony Stark as in the Stark Industries. These things weren't important to him at all; only finding Bruce.

It wasn't until 4 years, 2 months, and 6 days that Tony had found out Bruce was alive. He was locked in his lab again, working endlessly on useless things, trying to think of anything but Bruce, when some woman whose name, occupation, or anything he can't remember because he was slightly drunk at the time, told him that she had seen Bruce somewhere. Bruce had told her to tell Tony that he was okay. That meant Tony would be okay, too, but he had to find out where Bruce was and just be with him. That's all he wanted. 

But now that Tony was here, in the exact place he had wanted to be at in the past however many years, he wasn't sure he wanted it.  
What would this new Bruce be like, anyways? Married with children? Rich scientist, like he'd always dreamed? Hostile? Fragile? Or what if he'd just never changed except in age and things that came with it? It would be strange yet completely welcome, because Tony has changed too much for his own comfort ever since Bruce was gone.


	2. Last Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was the last conversation Tony had with Bruce before he lost him.

June 12, 2012

Bruce was double-checking his bag before he got to the airport. He wanted to make sure he looked nice for Tony, who always dressed nice. Of course, Tony had a few billion more dollars than Bruce, but still, he wanted to look like he was at least trying to impress Tony. 

They hadn't seen each other in weeks, unless you counted daily phone calls and video chats, because of their work. Being separated had brought them closer, at least in Bruce's mind, and all he wanted was to see Tony. Bruce understood that they were both busy, Tony a little more than himself, being the head of his own company and what not, but what he didn't understand is why they couldn't at least be in the same place. Tony had been traveling around the country, one week in L.A., the next in New York, while Bruce stayed out in a little town in the middle of nowhere. He didn't tell Tony where he was because if he was close enough, Bruce would get too distracted from his work and he didn't want Tony to come to him- that would distract both of them. What Tony would be distracted from... Bruce wasn't sure. He just knew that Tony built things, and that his company was always changing what they built, depending on what fad Tony was into.

Bruce just had one goal: controlling himself. He'd been testing different chemical mixtures on animals and seeing how they affected them and if he found one promising enough, he would test them on himself. He found a couple that he might try, but he showed them away for a time that he would be with someone he trusted enough to administer them to him- waiting to be with Tony. Now that Tony wanted him to go skydiving, he will be with Tony, and he might actually need to use the chemicals. He just needed to figure out how to get them past airport security. 

Just when he was thinking about how he would do this, he got a call from Tony. 

"You know, I really don't think this is a good idea." Bruce was always hesitant doing things outside of a lab, especially with Tony.

"Relax, a vacation will be great!"

"Skydiving, Tony? Do you seriously think I can handle that?"

"There's a lot you can handle..."

"I'm barely comfortable getting on a plane! Jumping off of one?"

"RELAX. You'll be fine. I'll be there in case anything happens! You turn into a green ball of anger? I'll give you a shot of something."

"It's not an allergy, Tony. You don't just shoot me with an EpiPen."

"Really? You should work on that...."

"I'm going to miss my flight, Tony. I have to hang up."

"You know, I could just pick you up in my private jet..."

"I don't want to do any damage in case anything happens..."

"Please, Thor's already done enough damage. I could be over there in two hours."

"Goodbye, Tony."

This was the last conversation Tony had with Bruce before he lost him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy is thus far!


	3. Everything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Instead of having fun and talking about science and catching up with his friend, one of the very few he could actually call a friend, he did what he does best: drank.

June 28, 2012

"Tony, come to bed. Now."  
Pepper was standing in the doorway of Tony's lab, out of his way, like she knew she should.

He'd been there working on only God-knows-what for the past four nights. She knew he hadn’t slept for the past four days, and probably even more than that, since she hadn't seen him for a week before that. She also knew that she was stretching her luck trying to get him to move, because ever since had gotten back from his trip, something had been very off about Tony. Her guess was as good as anyone else's, but she had guessed it was about Bruce not showing up.

"No can do. I think I'm finally getting something here…"

"What exactly are you doing, anyways? Please don’t tell me it's something with your reactor again and you’re not telling me something-"

"It's not my reactor. It's nothing. Just go to bed, I'll be there soon."

"No, you won't, Tony. That's what you said last night. And the night before that."

"I just need to get a little more work done, okay? Just leave me alone."

"I've left you alone about as much as I can, can't you just tell me what the hell is going on with you?"

"Everything…" Tony muttered under his breath. 

"Well, whenever you plan on acting like an adult and want to tell me something, just call me."

She turned around and slammed the door on her way out. 

Tony looked over his shoulder to make sure she was gone, then he slammed his head into his desk. Multiple times. 

When he had gotten off his plane, he went straight to the terminal Bruce was supposed to be getting in from and waited. And waited longer. And waited after every plane that day had finally arrived, and Bruce never showed up. Not one delayed or canceled flight. No explanation as to why Bruce didn’t show up. He just wasn't there. And that was a huge problem to Tony, who spent lots of time planning it. 

He had spent the rest of the week in the hotel he planned on staying in with Bruce, hopeful every day that he would show up. Of course, he didn't, and that didn't surprise Tony. It just felt like a big punch in the balls.

Instead of having fun and talking about science and catching up with his friend, one of the very few he could actually call a friend, he did what he does best: drank. There were tons of local bars who didn’t know about Tony's drinking problem and happily served him round after round of alcohol a night. He didn’t go overboard, but he did enough damage to have to pay some hefty fines and buy his way out of some bad publicity. 

Once Pepper had found out Tony wasn't with Bruce, who she was hoping would keep Tony at his best behavior, she made sure he came home right away and stopped drinking so much. He went home. 

Once home, he simply told Pepper that Bruce couldn't make it to their little vacation, and she accepted that as-is. Tony tip-toed around the subject and when he was alone, he started trying to figure out why Bruce really didn’t make it.

Even though he was Tony freaking Stark and had more technology than almost anyone on the planet, plus having his connections with S.H.I.E.L.D., you would think Tony could easily track down a giant green man. 

But Dr. Bruce Banner was also the most secretive man out there, and if he wanted to stay hidden, he sure as hell was impossible to find. 

So Tony had to start doing things the hard way, so instead of just easily asking JARVIS to search for a person, like he would do for Pepper, he had to start from scratch with Bruce. 

And that task was promising multiple days of intense searching.

Finally, Tony had found out where Bruce was after four days of non-stop research.

Bruce was in a small town in Missouri called Camdenton. He planned on flying from St. Louis to meet Tony, but that was a three hour drive from where Bruce was staying. So somewhere between Tony calling him and his flight leaving, something must've happened to Bruce. 

Was he in a car crash? Did he Hulk out and destroy a city? Did he just plain not want to see Tony?

These questions couldn't simply be answered through searching on the internet, and Bruce hadn't answered his phone in over two weeks, so Tony decided he needed to find out for himself.

He was going to Missouri.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how I feel about Pepper in this chapter. I just feel like she needs to be included.


	4. Lesson Learned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At around that moment, Bruce started realizing why Tony always wanted him to stop being so withdrawn.

July 3, 2012

Bruce was in a hospital bed.

He was alone. The only sound in the room was the slow, steady heart monitor.

But he couldn’t see. He could only hear the machines. 

After a few minutes, he heard doctors come in. 

He tried opening his eyes but he just couldn’t do it.

He could hear two sets of feet walking towards his bed. He wanted to cringe, but again, he couldn’t do it. When they spoke, it sounded as if they were worlds away. But of course, he felt them jab him with needles and stick metal things of him here and there until they got what they needed.

"He hasn’t shown much improvement, but he's still in pretty bad shape." Bruce heard a male voice say.

"Obviously he isn’t in any good shape," he heard a woman's voice this time, "People in good shape don’t go into comatose."

(Comatose? I'm in a coma? How? What even happened)

"They also don't have high levels of gamma radiation in their blood… yet somehow that wasn't the cause."

(What WAS the cause? Why AM I in a coma? Isn’t someone there for me? Isn’t someone I know asking questions?) Bruce wanted to scream. But he knew the people who would be there. And he knew for a fact that Tony couldn’t possibly show up because Bruce never once dropped a hint on where he was and now Bruce wasn't even sure himself where he was. 

"Why does he have such high gamma radiation levels in his blood?"

"We're not sure. We don’t know anything about this man; his name, age, any of it. He didn’t have identification on him and he hasn't had a visitor. He's a complete mystery."

"How do you think we should identify him? Put his face on a milk carton with the missing kids?"

Bruce heard them laugh. (How is this funny? How not knowing anything about one of your patients funny?)

At around that moment, Bruce started realizing why Tony always wanted him to stop being so withdrawn. To stop trying to hide. To at least tell people where he was. So in the case that he for some reason fell into a coma and needed someone there, someone could be there.

Lesson learned, Bruce. Lesson learned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Opps. Feels. And lots of them.


	5. Camdenton

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The phonebook had crumbled edges because of Tony's fierce page turning and gripping of the pages when he got mad and his hair hurt from the pulling.

July 6, 2012

Tony wasn't used to small towns and not being able to get what he wants, so when the two combined, he was not a happy camper.

Once in the town, he wasn't sure how to find Bruce. Camdenton was small and he couldn't just look Bruce up in a phonebook. He tried, but obviously he would've been living under a pseudonym. He tried calling Bruce over and over, and he still wasn't getting an answer.   
He did a lot of driving and asking around until he found people that had talked to Bruce. After talking to about twenty people (which was about the entire town), he found the address Bruce was staying at.

He drove for about a half an hour from the main town center, which had about nothing but some fast food restaurants and a gift shop that looked like a barn, until he came across some dirt roads. He wasn't even sure it was possible for people to live out here, but sure enough, the address JARVIS had put into the GPS for tony came to a small house on a big space of land that sure looked like it would hold Bruce. 

Tony stepped out of his rented truck and walked to the front of the house. He couldn't even wait to knock and wait for Bruce to answer, so he let himself in. Which was strange. 

Bruce always locked doors, he was always trying to hide.

One foot in the house and another foot still outside, Tony looked directly beneath him, and a pair of keys was lying right underneath him on the porch. He picked them up and tried to fit it into the door. It fit.

He started getting confused, but Tony just kept walking into the house.

"Bruce?" He called loud enough that if anyone had been in the house, they would hear. "Bruce, are you here?"

He walked around the house, looking in rooms and continued calling or Bruce like a lost puppy.

"God damn it, Bruce," Tony muttered to himself. "This is why you need to tell people where you're at."

He came across the room that looked like Bruce's bedroom. It was extremely neat and clean, the bed made and everything as if it was a hotel room. Tony snooped around in Bruce's drawers and saw there was still clothes in them. Some papers were on the desk and when he turned on the computer monitor there was still a webpage open confirming his flight and a smaller internet window saying that his boarding pass had printed.

"So you should've made your plane…" Tony muttered to himself, "but why didn't you make it to the airport?"

He suddenly remembered the keys he had found underneath his feet.

He walked as fast as he could without qualifying as running to the door, but stopped when he passed a room that looked like a lab.

Sure enough, it was. Tony saw some chemicals that he knew Bruce was probably working with, and some empty containers and half-filled jars that looked like they had probably either been tasted or gotten ready to be. 

Tony was distracted by science that he almost forgot Bruce was missing.

(Maybe he would've wanted to test those with me.)

He realized he had absent mindedly been picking up test tubes and put one down as he disregarded the thought, knowing that Bruce liked to keep to himself. Tony was only pretty sure that Bruce agreed to see Tony just to seem friendly. 

Of course, Tony definitely had felt it was closer than friendly to him. Otherwise he wouldn’t be in the middle of nowhere looking for Bruce. 

But Bruce just seemed interested in working with himself, in the middle of Missouri with no lab partner, taking no risks.

(How would he have gone missing then?)

Tony started worrying again and left the lab and went outside. He just noticed the other car in the driveway and decided to see if one of the other keys on the set he found on the porch would work in it, and sure enough, it did. 

He got in what he assumed was Bruce's car and drove further down the dirt road.

He drove for about twenty minutes until he came across a large pond, and he felt his heart nearly drop out of his chest.

There was a truck on its side next to the pond, on its side, surrounded by police tape. Some police were inside the tape observing the truck.

Tony pulled over and got out and decided to do some of his own investigating. 

He walked up to the officers and tried to keep his voice sounding calm, but he was so worried he almost had a full stutter. 

"W-what h-happened here, officers?"

Neither of them looked up, but they looked at each other. One shook his head in a sorry way and kept looking down as he said "Someone was speeding down this road and ended up in the water."

Tony was physically shaking now.

"W-was anyone k-killed?" 

"We found the passenger when we pulled the car out of the water. He was unconscious, but still breathing. Brought him to a hospital. Not likely he's still alive, though." one officer said.

Tony felt every inch of his body go numb, cold and still.

"We found the driver alive. We questioned him and it sounded like he was taking the passenger hostage," said the other. "Sounded delusional. Couldn’t remember a lot of details.   
Couldn’t even remember his own name. We found his ID, though. He was some sort of military General. He seemed fine at first, but once he was in the hospital he died. The hospital didn’t tell us the cause. The other one, the passenger, he didn't have ID. Couldn’t figure out anything about him. Didn’t even have finger prints, if you could believe it." 

"Th-thank you." Tony said. He could tell his face was flushed and he almost couldn’t face the truth that was staring him in the face.

"You look like you just saw a ghost, son." The detective said to Tony. "You alright?"

"I-I'll be f-fine." He said.

He trembled as he walked back to his car. The keys jangled as he started the car again and drove off. 

\--

Tony looked like a mad man sitting in his tiny hotel room.

His hair was a mess because he kept running his hands through it as he got nervous and angry speaking on the phone.

The phonebook had crumbled edges because of Tony's fierce page turning and gripping of the pages when he got mad and his hair hurt from the pulling.

In the four hours since he left the crash scene at the lake, he had called almost every hospital in Missouri.

"BRUCE BANNER!" He screamed into the phone. "DOCTOR BRUCE BANNER! DON'T YOU KEEP TRACK OF YOUR PATIENTS?"

"Of course we do, sir-" The receptionist on the other line said

"THEN TELL ME IF DOCTOR BRUCE BANNER IS ADMITTED IN YOU HOSPITAL!"

"Sir, please cal-"

"DON’T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!" Tony creamed. "HAS ANYONE NAMED BRUCE BANNER BEEN IN YOUR HOSPITAL IN THE PAST TWO WEEKS?"

"No-"

Tony hung up. He couldn’t take it anymore.

The threw phonebook against the wall, followed by the hotel room phone. 

"Sir, please, I think you're disrupting the other hotel guests."

"JARVIS, SHUT UP!" He screamed as he threw his own phone at the wall next.

Then came a knock at the door followed by a voice saying "Sir! We've had a noise complaint from another guest!"

"NO SHIT YOU HAVE A NOISE COMPLAINT!" Tony yelled to the door. "I’M PISSED!" 

"SIR! I'm going to have to ask you to leave immediately!" The voice said.

"Fine! I don’t need this crappy place anyway." Tony ripped the door off the mini bar, grabbed all the alcohol, opened the door and shoved past the manager who was standing   
outside. 

He cracked one open and chugged the whole thing. It was the first of many to follow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why but I just love angst. Just kidding. It just flows out of me.


	6. Loved & Gone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not being able to talk to Bruce, even if it was just calling him for a while, Tony started realizing how much he cared about Bruce.

August 6, 2012

Tony had been home for about three weeks now.

After getting kicked out of the hotel, Tony had walked around Camdenton, drunk, until a nice local saw that he was drunk and decided to drop him off at his house. Since   
Camdenton was one of the few places Tony didn’t own a house in, he showed him the crumbled up address in his pocket and he stayed at Bruce's house.

Tony spent days secluded in Bruce's house. When he wasn't drunk, he was looking through Bruce's lab work and figured out he was working on an EpiPen-esque chemical that he would probably use when the Hulk came out. 

One day he actually decided to work a little himself on it. Even though he was more of an engineering buff than a chemistry one, he thought since Bruce was gone he probably wouldn’t mind Tony stepping in where he left off. 

He also snooped around Bruce's room a little more and found some things pretty interesting.

Bruce's laptop, for example.

For the most part, it had normal things like links to illegally downloaded movies and email and data that didn’t fit into his lab notebook. but he did have another folder entitled, much like a teenage girl's, "DO NOT OPEN"

"Oh, this has got to be good…" Tony muttered to himself. 

He opened what seemed to be an inception of folders entitled similar things until he actually came across files. 

First he came across a folder with pictures in it. The first few were pictures of the entire Avengers team, but after about the first three they were all Bruce and Tony or just Tony.

Probably just a coincidence. Tony thought at first. But, Tony did spend the most time with Bruce, but that's really only because Tony was such a pusher to spend time with someone who actually talked science. And did science. And was just smart and interesting in general.

Bruce mainly stayed to himself and didn’t seem to want to be involved with anyone, whether it was a friendly relationship or if there was a chance at something more.

Or maybe Bruce was trying to protect them. maybe he thought he would hurt them.

Tony's mind was working at a speed faster than his own trying to figure out Bruce even when he was missing, even though Tony's brain is already working ten times faster than anyone else's at any given time. 

He didn’t bother going through the rest of his files, but he did rummage through the rest of Bruce's desk.

He found a little booklet that kept his dates and plans, and as he flipped through it, most of them consisted of Tony. Obviously.

There was even a circle around that date of his flight, and Tony just slammed the book shut and threw it under the desk again. 

Tony had to stop himself after a while because he found himself worrying more. he went to the kitchen and found himself some alcohol and drank to sooth the pain of worry.

Not being able to talk to Bruce, even if it was just calling him for a while, Tony started realizing how much he cared about Bruce. 

He was missing the little things like calling him to make jokes about science no one else would understand or to talk about new theories or just talk about themselves. Tony forced   
Bruce to open up about himself sometimes and vice versa. It was a great friendship, and it seemed like so much more to Tony, someone who had trouble keeping real friends in his world of business and money.

Sitting alone, drunk, in Bruce's abandoned house because Bruce was probably dead, Tony realized he had so much more than friendship with Bruce, even if to him it was just friendship. Tony loved Bruce. And he would probably never see him again.

And for the first time in his life, Tony just started crying.

\--

Tony went home the next day. He took Bruce's lab book and a small journal he found in his desk with him. The rest wasn't really worth saving.

The first thing he did when he went home was get drunk. It eased the pain, and he sure as hell couldn’t talk to anyone sober. 

Pepper finally couldn’t take it with the drunk mess he seemed to be 24/7, and she left him alone. She didn't want to talk to him until he cleaned himself up, and she suspected he wouldn’t do that ever. 

As he was pleading with her through booze brain, he had said something about the company needing her, and when she said he could keep the company to himself or she'd take it all, he gave it to her. All of it. Every single penny, and she was gone with it.

He walked into his lab and crawled onto one of the empty tables. He was incredibly drunk still, and tired, and he started crying again and as he started falling asleep, he started wishing he wouldn’t wake up to everything he loved gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are you crying yet? I am. Oops.


	7. One Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything that had happened in the last twenty minutes had seemed to rush by so fast, and now it seemed like time had stopped. For Tony Stark. As it always does.

July 31, 2016

Bruce had fallen in and out of semi-conscious trances since he found out he was in a coma.

Sometimes it just felt like he was there but he couldn’t see and he couldn't talk or move or open his eyes. Other times it was as if he was sleeping.

He couldn’t keep track of how long these lasted, so he had no clue what day it was or anything about what was happening outside of him unless a doctor was in while he was "awake."

But, today, when he tried to actually open his eyes, he did.

He blinked back fiercely, surprised by how bright the lights were. He suddenly felt much more aware of his surroundings. his arm felt itchy, so he absent-mindedly started scratching at the IV until it came out, which started a chorus of machines beeping and doctors flooding in the room. Everything just started feeling like a blur after that.

Doctors came at him, poking him with needles and shining things in his eyes and he was so shocked that he wasn't turning into a green rage monster. He assumed it was that the rest of his body was slowly waking up from the coma.

There were also people shouting questions; not just at Bruce, just in general. Doctors and nurses were shouting questions at each other about Bruce's vitals, others asking Bruce generic questions that he couldn’t answer because it was all too much being thrown at him.

At one point, he was so fed up at people trying to treat him with things he started to get up on his own, which started a new wave of commotion from the people swarming him.

"SIR! I'm going to have to ask you to sit down, PLEASE!"

"Why should I do that?"

"Sir, you've just come out of a comatose-"

"I know that; even if I wasn't a doctor, I could figure that out."

"Well, we wouldn’t even know you were a doctor-"

Bruce barely even heard the one person he decided to talk to over the rest of them still prodding him and asking each other questions.

"Can I please just have one doctor in here at a time? Lots of people around me gets me pretty angry."

"Sir, we-"

"Please, it would make everything a whole lot easier."

"I- fine."

The doctor Bruce was talking to ushered everyone out, even though he had to put up a fight to do so. This made Bruce feel a lot calmer, and eventually it was just Bruce sitting in his hospital bed and the doctor sitting in a chair across from him.

"Where am I?" Bruce asked firmly and immediately.

"You're in a hospital."

"Obviously. What state? City? Give me some details."

The doctor looked taken aback.

"You're in St. Louis, Missouri."

"That doesn’t seem to be too close to where I was."

"You were originally found in a truck in the bottom of some pond in Camdenton, Missouri. After seeing you in the ER there, we flew you out here. You would've almost died for sure if you'd stayed there. It's actually quite a miracle you've survived this long."

"There's a lot of things that are a miracle about me," Bruce muttered quietly. "How long have I been…"

"Today is August eighteenth-"

"So, not incredibly long-"

"2016."

"Oh," Bruce took a long whistle. "Fuck."

"Um, yeah. That. Do you have any more questions? Because if you don’t, I have some questions for you." He said, tapping the chart in his hand that Bruce was sure was completely empty.

"No…I guess not.'

"Good. Let's start with… what's your name?"

"Doctor Bruce Banner." He said with a chuckle.

"Well, if you're a doctor, why do you need us?"

"I actually don't need you-"

"That was a joke."

"I really don’t find it too funny."

"Unfortunately, you probably have to stay here for quite some time-"

"That doesn’t really fit my plans. I've already missed my flight-"

"Well, I'm sorry to say this, but you're going to miss anymore until we figure out the rest of your mysteries-"

"Those are my mysteries to keep." Bruce said as he got out of the bed and walked away as quickly as he could. He reached the elevator before the doctor did and made sure the door closed behind him.

Once at the front desk, he stopped and asked the receptionist "Excuse me, but have there been any visitors or calls for me?"

"What's your name, sir?"

"Bruce Banner. Doctor Bruce Banner."

"Um…" she looked at her computer screen for about thirty seconds. "Not recently, no."

Bruce felt a little pang in his heart.

"Okay. Thank you anyway."

He walked outside, not sure where exactly where he was going, considering he had no car or anything in St. Louis, plus he was only wearing a hospital gown.

He was halfway down the parking lot when the receptionist was running at him yelling "Wait! Stop!"

He turned around, slightly agitated, when she came skidding to a stop in front of him, holding a paper.

"You had one call." she said through deep breathes from running. "From a Mr. Tony Stark. He didn’t leave a message, but we received it a few days after you were admitted."

Bruce seriously didn’t know what to say. Everything that had happened in the last twenty minutes had seemed to rush by so fast, and now it seemed like time had stopped. For Tony Stark. As it always does.

"Well," the receptionist said, "I just thought you'd want to know. Seeing as he's the only person who called, you seem to be pretty important to him."

"Yeah…I guess you could say that…" Bruce said. "There's a lot of things that Tony could define as 'important,' though, seeing as he's the head of his own company and-"  
"Tony Stark doesn’t run Stark Industries anymore." She said matter-of-factly.

"What do you mean, Tony Stark doesn’t run Stark Industries anymore?" 

"A few years ago he gave the company over to Pepper Potts. She runs it now, much more efficiently, I might add."

Bruce couldn't believe what he was hearing. Could all of this really happen while he was basically taking a nap? Granted, a four year nap, but could he seriously go through all that so quickly?

"Do you know what he's doing now? Where he is?"

"He's been off the radar…" Once she said that, he almost lost trying to contact Tony, but then she added, "but I've actually got a job interview with him… I've been following his new work in the medical field through scientific journals, and I applied to work with him as an intern."

"I really, really hope you aren’t kidding right now. Sorry, but even though I've had a pretty unbelievable day, it's kind of a pretty big coincidence that you're about to see apparently the only person that cares about me, seeing as no one else tried looking for me…"

"I wouldn’t' have come out here if I wasn't seeing him. He came up when I searched for your name, and I thought maybe I could pass on a message for you…"

Bruce almost couldn’t believe it. This whole day he couldn’t believe, actually. So now he's been gone for four years, and the first thing he wants to do is see Tony, obviously- he was on his way to see him when he initially got into the accident, right? 

But everything he just heard about Tony- handing over his company, switching from engineering to medical- would Tony even want to see Bruce anymore? God, would he remember who he was? Sure, he was the only person who called him, but that was only days after he'd been admitted. 

Or maybe Tony was having some sort of mid-life crisis, and was having emotional problems that Bruce would surely just make worse? Not only that, but being near Tony would put him at risk of getting hurt by the other guy. Everything Bruce was finding out today was putting him on edge, and he assumed the only reason he wasn't Hulk-ing out was the fact that he was probably still doped up on medications or still slow from just "waking up.'

"Where is he?"

"Michigan."

"When you see Tony," Bruce said, "tell him I say 'hi,' and that I'm okay."

"Are you sure? Is that all you want to tell him?"

"That's probably more than he wants to know."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BTW: It's not. 
> 
> You can totally see my vast knowledge of how a coma works and how much research I put into this she says with utter sarcasm.


	8. This

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Someone important to me. And these were important to him. But now he'd dead, so he can’t show me what they mean."

August 18, 2016

Tony sat slouched over a lab table, his third or fourth beer in one hand, and Bruce's old lab notebook in the other.

His lab was now a storage space he was renting for ten bucks a month. All the money he could spare was going into the equipment for the lab. Ever since he had left Missouri, after acknowledging the fact the Bruce was more than likely dead, he had continued his work on a cure for the gamma radiation. Sure, he no longer had a reason for the cure, or a test subject for it, but it had given him something to do besides watching his entire life crash into rock bottom.

He had been staying in a small apartment walking distance from the storage facility where he did his work. He almost never walked into the apartment unless he had company, which was almost never, or when he ran out of alcohol in the mini fridge in the lab.

Even though he was living almost as cheap as someone could get, he was close to not affording the rent for the apartment anymore. He was also getting pretty lonely, and needed someone to do his boring work for him, so he decided to hire someone as an intern and make them pay their own rent with him. He posted a listing in a science journal that was publishing him online, and he found a couple applicants that seemed worthy. 

But of course, Tony really didn’t want to have people around anymore, and he kept getting mad at himself for posting the listing anyways. But of course, it was too late and one of the applicants he had chosen was coming for her interview today, so his aggravation from that combined with his frustration with his work lately due to a lack of medical knowledge, he decided it was a good excuse to get drunk. Again. There almost wasn't a moment when he wasn't drunk these days. 

Finally, someone, a girl who looked like she was around her twenties, knocked on the side of the open storage unit.

"Hello? Mr. Stark?"

Tony turned around in his chair and set Bruce's journal upside-down. He looked at her and gave her a look that said "what do you want?"

"Um… I'm here for my interview?"

He motioned for her to come closer to him. he picked up the book he had put down and turned a couple of pages back.

"Read these next three pages. If you can figure out what it means, put it in a bottle and give it to me. If you can do that, you've got the job."

He turned back around and drank the rest of his beer in one gulp, then picked up another. The girl looked at him in astonishment.

"Well, aren’t you gunu start reading?"

"This is your idea of an interview? If I can’t do this, I don’t get the job?"

"Well, yeah. See, I haven’t figure those pages out in about two weeks, and I need someone who can. That's why I need help. That's the whole point of the job."

"If you can’t figure it out, what makes you think I can? Aren't you a born genius or something?"

"Well, yes, but engineering is more of my forte."

"Then why are you working in the medical field now?"

Tony was starting to get aggravated. Because of Bruce was what he wanted to say. This was the first person in four years to actually talk to him like a person. Someone who actually gave a damn, even if it was negative. He really didn’t care by this point. 

"Because I want to figure that out." He said pointing to the book. "It's pretty important to the person who did all that work, and now I'm here to finish his work."

She skimmed over the pages quickly, astounded by how complicated the equations were and how precise the dilutions to the chemicals were.

"I can’t believe I flew all the way from St. Louis for this."

"Is that far? What state are we even in?" The alcohol was starting to cloud Tony's brain slightly. At least he was starting to get the wanted effect.

"Michigan." She spat. 

"Right… so, can you figure these pages out or not?"

"No. You know, maybe if you stopped drinking so much, you could figure them out yourself. The only people who would probably figure it out in the world and you and the guy who wrote these notes. Who was it, anyways?"

Tony swallowed back hard. Thinking about Bruce was so tough.

"Someone important to me. And these were important to him. But now he'd dead, so he can’t show me what they mean."

She flipped to the front of the book. Inside the first page was scribbled in bad doctors handwriting that she had learned to read through her internships at the hospital:  
Property of Dr. Bruce Banner

"…Dr. Bruce Banner?"

Tony held back tears. He hadn’t heard his name out loud in years.

"You've probably never heard of-"

"He's not dead." She said sternly.

"What?" Tony jumped out of his seat and walked straight up to her face.

"He's alive."

Tony couldn’t believe it. He actually could not believe it at all. 

"Wait- what? How? I mean- how do you know? He was in an accident, they said he probably didn’t live! I called every hospital in Missouri for weeks and nobody said they found him!"

"He didn’t have ID. I'm a receptionist at a hospital in Missouri. He woke up from a coma-'

"Coma? He was in a coma?"

"When he woke up he found out you had called for him- he wanted you to know he's okay. and he says hi."

Tony didn’t know what to think. He was excited that Bruce wasn't dead. He was devastated that he was in a coma for four years. He was stunned at what a small world it was that this girl who applied for an internship with him had actually been in contact with him. But the one thing that overcame everything was a strong need to find Bruce right away. Even though he only realized it once he was gone, Tony hadn’t stopped loving Bruce from the minute he realized it. Not once. 

"Where is he? Do you have a phone number? Anything?"

"N-no," she was caught off guard now. She wasn't expecting him to ask these kinds of questions. "he just left the hospital. He didn’t tell anyone where he was going, just left without a word."

Tony grabbed the book out of her hand and started moving small things into a bad.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Thank you for everything, really." He said. "But you're no longer needed for the position."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Nope. Now I just need to focus on finding Banner. Then I can get the bastard to tell me what this means."

He walked out of the lab and walked to his apartment, leaving the girl flabbergasted. 

And by "this," he didn’t just mean the calculations; he wanted to know if "this" was more than friendship to Bruce, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, here I go flaunting my vast knowledge of how internships and job interviews go. Oh well. It's Tony Stark. He does what he wants. I'm sorry for personally butchering the character of Tony Stark.


	9. Fifth Ring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the third ring he wasn't sure if Tony was even going to pick up- but he did.

August 20, 2016

Bruce had nothing with him when he left the hospital. Which he was fine with. Used to, actually. 

He had come in contact with an old colleague of his who happened to live in St. Louis now, and he had let him stay there while Bruce found where he was going next.

Bruce knew seeing Tony was a bad idea, but there truthfully wasn't any other person he wanted to see at that moment, and each day it pained him worse that he hadn’t spoken to Tony in over four years.

Now he was at the library, searching the internet somewhere for a way to contact Tony Stark.

There was an online science journal written by Tony, and at the bottom, there was a link for "contact the author," which was precisely what Bruce was looking for. There, was a list of his email, phone number, and address. he wrote down all three, but only intended to use the second one.

Later that night, he sat in the guest room he was staying in, staring at the ceiling and thinking of Tony. He wasn't just thinking of the few bad things that had happened to Tony that Bruce had just found out about. He was mainly thinking about time they had spent together, talking to each other, how he had never really connected that way to anyone else; not intellectually or emotionally.

(Just one phone call. Just one phone call, and I'll be fine. And he'll be fine.)

He took the piece of paper he had written the phone number down on out of his back pocket and flattened it out neatly. he reached for the cordless phone on the nightstand next to him and dialed the number as quickly as he could- like ripping off a band-aid.

Bruce suddenly felt nervous as he heard the phone ring. After the third ring he wasn't sure if Tony was even going to pick up- but he did. On the fifth ring. 

"Hello?" Tony said. It was more of a mumble through the alcohol and sleepiness.

"…T-tony?" Bruce was shaking. He didn’t think he should be this nervous to talk to the person he felt most comfortable with, but being in a coma complicated things.

"Who is this?"

"It's… it's Bruce. Bruce Banner."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally a chapter where I feel like I knew what I was writing about. Unless phones don't ring 5 times. Then I'm sorry.


	10. What Happened

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No, he wasn't alright.

August 20, 2016

Tony dropped the phone when he heard Bruce. Even after four years, he recognized Bruce's voice immediately.

Tony scrambled to pick the phone off of the floor, which he could barely do because he was buzzed and excited and even though it's only been two days, ever since he found out Bruce wasn't dead, he was trying to find him more desperately than ever. 

"-Tony? Are you there?" Bruce said on the other line, sounding confused.

"BRUCE! Oh my GOD!" Tony was trying to hold back tears now, but god damn it- he had never been so happy and worried and in love at the same time. And if someone didn’t restrain him, he would confess it all right then and there.

"Tony? Are you alright?"

No, he wasn't alright. He had just spent four years, two months and six days sulking. Crying. Drinking. Learning chemistry and medication. Watching his life take a running leap into rock bottom because he thought his best friend was dead. Then he realized he loved him. Then rock bottom lit on fire. And then he finds out Bruce isn’t dead and he's speaking to him and he just wants to climb into the phone and cling to Bruce. That's not alright. 

"Bruce. Where the FUCK are you?"

"Are you drunk?"

"Where have you been?"

"You're drunk."

"Bruce. You don’t understand how important this is: I miss you."

"You're really drunk."

"God damn it, Bruce! I'M NOT DRUNK! Now tell me where you are so I can fly there and take you to my place. You're not leaving my sight again. Ever."

"Tony, be reasonable."

"BRUCE! YOU'VE BEEN MISSING FOR FOUR FUCKING YEARS!"

"TONY! You don’t think I've figured that out by now?"

"THEY SAID YOU WERE DEAD! BRUCE! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD FOR FOUR FUCKING YEARS!"

"Dead? Wait- who's they?"

"Some police god damn police officers in Missouri! FUCK, BRUCE! WHAT HAPPENED?"

"I-wait, what? I DON’T KNOW! I'm the one who's been in a fucking coma for four years!"

Tony's heart dropped. A fucking coma? Bruce? 

"A COMA? BRUCE! A COMA? JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!"

"TONY! Calm down!"

"SAYS THE MAN WITH GREAT EMOTIONAL CONTROL!"

"Tony Stark! You're really starting to piss me off!"

"You're lucky I haven't ordered you a dog collar! Seriously, where the FUCK ARE YOU? I'm getting you on a plane, and you’re coming with me." Tony was in tears on his end. He didn’t even care that Bruce was getting mad at him- he physically needed to be with Bruce now. He wasn't going to let anyone get in the way of that.

"Tony, I don’t need you babysitting me! I was planning on calling you and telling you where I was so you could feel a little safer, but since you just want to lock me up in a crate and make sure I don’t get too dangerous- forget it!"

No, no, no, no, no. None of this was for Bruce's safety. Or anyone else's. It was totally and completely for Tony. Of course it was selfish- it was meant to be selfish! Tony wanted Bruce all to himself and now he could just pluck him up and take him home. But none of this was getting across because Tony couldn’t speak straight. Or think straight.

"Bruce, please! This isn’t about you right now!"

"WELL WHO THE FUCK IS IT ABOUT, THEN?"

Tony started talking, but he knew he was too fucking late. Because he knew he had pissed Bruce off to the extreme, because he no longer heard Bruce on the other line. He heard the Hulk roaring. But he still said what he wanted to say.

"IT'S ABOUT ME! IT’S ABOUT ME LOVING YOU AND I NEED YOU BACK HERE WITH ME, GOD DAMN IT!" 

He heard the other line click off to the dial tone- the Hulk probably stepped on the phone. Tony slammed his head against the wall, multiple times. 

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." he said with each slam.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because it's not angsty Bruce Banner without some hulking out.


	11. Needed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He couldn’t stop acknowledging the phone booth that was next to the restrooms.

December 24, 2016

Bruce stood in line at the airport security checkpoint. He kept looking down at his watch. 11:17 P.M. Even though the airport was basically dead due to the fact that most people were at home celebrating the holiday, the line of about sixteen people moved extremely slow.

Immediately after his last accident when he called Tony, he decided he needed to leave the country again. 

He had saved up some money in the past few months to get himself a plane ticket. One-way only. He was going to South Korea so he could continue his work on medicine- even though he left all of his work in Missouri- and do volunteer work.

Usually Tony was the reason that kept him inside the country, so he would know that at least he had someone who cared about him within reasonable distance.  
But this time it seemed like the best choice. 

Judging from his last call, it just seemed like Tony only cared about Bruce's actions, not actually Bruce himself.

And it wasn't the thought that made Bruce angry- everybody else in the world only cared about Bruce for that reason. But Tony… 

Bruce was almost positive that Tony at least half way understood how Bruce felt. He thought that Tony cared about him- trusted him even. And trust is something Bruce didn’t have from anybody- not even himself.

Plus, Tony was always the one person that Bruce could consider a friend. He didn’t let himself get into too many relationships with people- platonic or not. But Tony Stark had a way of getting under your skin, and once he was there, he didn't leave. 

Even now, where Tony is pretty much the person Bruce would least want to see at the moment, he was also the person he wanted to see the most. 

He kept reminding himself as he was standing in line and about to turn right around and head to Michigan that Tony was the reason he got angry. The reason he needed to leave. The reason he needed to cut himself off again. Because whether they're good emotions, bad emotions, or emotions that lie in grey areas, emotions were things Bruce needed to stay away from, and that was exactly what he would get from Tony.

__

After going through security with his amusingly small backpack, which actually did have to get looked through because he had a full bottle of toothpaste in inside of it, he had about an hour until his plane took off. 

Bruce sat in the terminal for about twenty minutes, staring at the three other people there, loudly snoring in their seats. 

He couldn’t stop acknowledging the phone booth that was next to the restrooms. 

He also couldn't stop acknowledging the crumbled piece of paper in his pocket that had Tony's phone number on it.

(No. If you call him, if you talk to him, you won't actually leave. You'll go back.)

Another twenty minutes went by. Bruce saw the plane we was supposed to be boarding finally make its way to the terminal, which meant that he only had about thirty minutes to call Tony if he wanted to speak to him before he left. And when he left, he couldn’t be able to call Tony. Or anybody, but he didn't really have anybody else he would want to call.

Caught in a moment of panic and stupidity, Bruce wandered over to the phone. He doubted Tony would pick up the phone at nearly midnight on Christmas Eve. Even if he was drunk, he probably was with somebody.

He dug in his pocket for a moment before taking out the crumpled piece of paper and laying it out in his palm and dialing with his other hand.

For the first couple of rings, Bruce started getting nervous that he might actually pick up, and the he would have a re-hashing of the events that occurred on their previous call. And that would be even worse now, because it's Christmas. And Bruce is at an airport.

But this was a risk he was willing to take.

The voicemail finally picked up. Tony's voice was good to hear, and Bruce was suddenly not mad at him anymore. Stay focused, Banner. you can’t go back now.

"This is Tony Stark. If you don't know how a voicemail works, then you don’t deserve to leave me a message." There was a small beep and Bruce suddenly felt put on the spot.

"Um… hey, Tony. It's Bruce. Look, I…uh… well, I guess I'm sorry about last time… I just wanted to let you know, you were right to worry about me and shit. Clearly you have a good reason to, but… now I'm leaving. For good. No more phone calls, visits, anything. I'm leaving the country. I don’t know if I'll be back…" It all seemed so… emotionless. Like Tony was a drug addict and Bruce was making him quite cold turkey. "…but I need to let you know why I made this decision."

Bruce glanced up at the terminal. They were starting to board first class, so he knew he had to make the rest quick, which was difficult, because he felt a wave of emotions so strong he almost didn’t recognize them. But he'd felt them before for someone else. But this time they felt more…real.

"Look, you probably know the effect you have on people. They yell at you about being selfish and arrogant and all that, and every single one of them is right. And you infuriate me more than any other person I know. And you're the type of person that I need to stay away form because you piss me off so much. I can’t stand you." All of this was being so rushed he wasn't even sure Tony would be able to understand him.

"But, god damn it, you're Tony Stark so it doesn’t matter. For a long, long time you made me feel cared about and trusted and wanted, and god damn it, no one's made me feel that way in way too long. Tony… you… you’re the first person I would consider to be my 'friend.' You know what? No. That's stupid. You're more than a friend, Tony. You're more than just someone who cares about me and trusts me and respects me. You put up with me, all of me. You make me feel… like more than just a monster… or just a scientist… you make me feel needed, something I've never felt." Bruce was just realizing all of this as he said it out loud. 

And it hurt. It hurt in a way that didn't make his heart rate go up or anger him. It just suppressed him. And he kept going.

"And I don’t mean needed as in the way I'm needed as a doctor. I mean needed in the way that means someone actually wants to see me. And spend time with me. And be with me. Which nobody wants to do. Because if they know about the other guy, they don’t want to touch me with a ninety foot stick. If they need to see a doctor, then of course they don’t want to see me, they're probably dying. But you know about the Hulk and sure, some could argue that you are dying, but not urgently. And you still want and need me? God damn it Tony I- I don’t know what I would do to myself if I put you in any sort of danger. And that's exactly why I need to leave. For good… Merry Christmas, Tony. I love you."

And with that, he hung up the phone and wiped tears from his eyes as he ran back to his terminal. 

If he had taken about thirty more seconds on the phone, he would've missed the plane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's going to be really embarrasing when I'm the only one crying at this point.


	12. The Difference Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He was going to do what he always did at a loss; throw himself into his work and drink.

January 1, 2017

Tony gingerly opened the door to his apartment and walked in slowly. His head hurt insanely from his hangover that the slightest sounds made his head pound.

The last few days, or weeks, Tony wasn't sure, he'd spent locked up in his "lab." He had slept and eaten there, but nothing was substantial. He was like a machine these days, going through daily motions and rigidly working, trying to get out of his own head.

He didn't even bother taking off his shoes or his sunglasses before going straight to the couch and falling face-first into it. He fell asleep for a few hours before waking up around two, still hung over but head not banging like a drum anymore.

Standing up to go to the kitchen to make himself some food, he absent mindedly turned on the TV. The news said it was New Years, apparently.

"Happy holidays, Tony." he said to himself as he poured himself a small drink. he didn't even realize he'd worked through Christmas. 

It didn’t matter. Nobody was going out of their way to talk or spend time with him, anyway.

He started sipping his drink and making himself eggs when he noticed his phone was lighting up. There was a voicemail.

He grabbed his drink and forgetting the raw eggs in a bowl, he walked over to the phone and pressed the play button.

Hearing Bruce's voice made him choke and drop the glass.

"Um… hey, Tony. It's Bruce. Look, I…uh… well, I guess I'm sorry about last time… I just wanted to let you know, you were right to worry about me and shit. Clearly you have a good reason to, but… now I'm leaving. For good. No more phone calls, visits, anything. I'm leaving the country. I don’t know if I'll be back…but I need to let you know why I made this decision."

Oh god. He was leaving. For good. Did Tony really make him that angry? Was he that bad of a person?

"Look, you probably know the effect you have on people. They yell at you about being selfish and arrogant and all that, and every single one of them is right. And you infuriate me more than any other person I know. And you're the type of person that I need to stay away form because you piss me off so much. I can’t stand you."  
Tony already knew all this. He'd heard it from almost every person he'd ever met. The difference here was that it was coming from someone he loved. This wasn't going to end well. 

"But, god damn it, you're Tony Stark so it doesn’t matter. For a long, long time you made me feel cared about and trusted and wanted, and god damn it, no one's made me feel that way in way too long. Tony… you… you’re the first person I would consider to be my 'friend.' You know what? No. That's stupid. You're more than a friend, Tony. You're more than just someone who cares about me and trusts me and respects me. You put up with me, all of me. You make me feel… like more than just a monster… or just a scientist… you make me feel needed, something I've never felt."

At this point, Tony was crouched on the floor, listening intently. No no no no no. You're the one that puts up with me, he thought, not the other way around. He put his head in his hands and listened to the rest.

"And I don’t mean needed as in the way I'm needed as a doctor. I mean needed in the way that means someone actually wants to see me. And spend time with me. And be with me. Which nobody wants to do. Because if they know about the other guy, they don’t want to touch me with a ninety foot stick. If they need to see a doctor, then of course they don’t want to see me, they're probably dying. But you know about the Hulk and sure, some could argue that you are dying, but not urgently. And you still want and need me? God damn it Tony I- I don’t know what I would do to myself if I put you in any sort of danger. And that's exactly why I need to leave. For good… Merry Christmas, Tony. I love you."  
That was it. That was exactly it. That was the same way Tony felt about Bruce.

And now Bruce is gone.

And there's nothing he could do about it. 

Bruce was probably long gone now. No way back. No way of finding him, either. 

Tony took a few deep breathes trying to process this. He probably was never going to see Bruce again. And there was nothing. He. Could. Do. About. It. 

For the first time, Tony was at a complete loss as to what to do next. Everything he'd done up to this point since Bruce left was either looking for Bruce or working with Bruce's data or something related to Bruce. But this time he couldn’t plan on Bruce being there. Even when he thought he was dead, it was with hope that he wasn't, which ended up being true. 

He stood up off the floor and scraped the glass shards off his jeans. He grabbed a bottle of liquor and left the apartment again.

He was going to do what he always did at a loss; throw himself into his work and drink.

And hopefully Bruce will come back. Soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drunk science seems to be my go-to place for Tony. Not sorry.


	13. He's Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More and more things ran through Bruce's mind, but they also just made him want to call him even more, just to take a chance.

March 20, 2025

Bruce stepped off the plane. He was back in the United States.

After so much volunteering overseas at hospitals in developing countries, one at home decided to give him a grant and a part-time job, along with an apartment and anything he needed, really.

Hesitant at first, Bruce finally took the offer, thinking he should probably settle down, now that he had a chance.

Of course, his hesitance started in the fact that now he would be closer to Tony again.

He hadn't stopped thinking about Tony; how could he, after everything that happened with him and Tony before he left? 

He still loved him. 

But when you're countries and planes and patients and money away, it's a little self-restraining. He never really had the option to just call or write or visit Tony while he was away- with a lack of money, a phone, phone service, internet to figure out Tony's address, it was for the best while he was gone.

But now he's home, has a phone, internet, a car, the only thing stopping him from seeing him is will power.

And who knows how long that'll last, seeing that he's just gotten off the plane and already has an itch to call Tony and let him know he's back in the U.S.

(You don't have to tell him where you are. You can just tell him you're back and that you're alright.)

His hand lingered over his pocket where his brand new phone was.

There was only one number in there. The number Bruce called when he left the U.S. years ago. He had memorized it and put it in the phone, just to say he had someone he could call, even if it's the worst person he could call.

(What if he has a different number? What if he doesn't remember you?)

More and more things ran through Bruce's mind, but they also just made him want to call him even more, just to take a chance.

He took the phone out of his pocket. He hit dial. It rang.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just love cutting it off at the phone calls.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Is this some sort of April fool's joke?"
> 
> "Clearly not, since April first isn’t for another week and a half."

March 20, 2025

It was one of the rare moments that Tony was in his apartment. It was also rare that he was sober. Again, it was also rare that his phone was ringing.

Tony slowly got off the couch and walked over to his phone assuming it was another 800 number.

"Hello?" he said while rubbing his eyes, just waking up from a nap.

"Um… is Tony Stark there?" he heard weakly on the other line.

"This is Tony…" he said uneasy. There was something strange about whoever was on the other line. He heard a long deep breath and then silence. "Hello?"

"Tony, it's… it's Bruce."

His heart dropped right there. 

(No, it couldn’t be him. After all this time? How would he still have his number?)

"Is this some sort of April fool's joke?"

"Clearly not, since April first isn’t for another week and a half."

The last time Bruce called Tony ended up in hysterics. Now, it just… took him by shock. He was so much… calmer. 

"Oh my god…Bruce.. where are you?" he wanted to cry. He wanted to just run to Bruce and have everything be okay and just love him because he knows he loved him back.

Or at least hoped he still did. The voicemail he left was years ago, but Tony still listens to it all the time. Because he loves hearing that Bruce loves him. For all he knew, Bruce could hate Tony now. But still; at least he knew that at one point, it could've been that fleeting moment for all he knew, Bruce loved him back. And that was all that mattered. 

"Well, I'm at an airport right now… O'Hare…"

"Oh my god, are you leaving? Coming back?"

"Well, I just got back to the States. I got a job offered to me here in Chicago, I guess it's a good idea that I take it for now…"

Tony was breathing quietly yet heavily, trying to hide the sounds of him crying. 

(He's back. he's back. He's back and I'm going to get to be with him.)

"Can… can I come see you?"

He was pushing his luck. But what did he have to lose? Now he was literally hours by car from Bruce. Hell, he could break out the Iron Man suit for the first time in literally years and be there in no time. He wasn't sure what Bruce would say. He wasn't sure it mattered because he would probably find him anyways.

He heard Bruce take a deep breath on the other line.

"I… I don't know, Tony."

"Why not?" his hands were shaking now. Hell, his everything was shaking. Even his voice.

"It's just… not a good idea. I haven't had an incident since… well, the last time was when I was talking to you."

Tony couldn’t take it. He didn’t even try to hide the fact that he was sobbing now. And really, truly, ugly sobbing.

"Bruce, please. I still love you."

"…I know…I still love you too-"

"Please, Bruce! Then why not?"

"Because that's exactly why it's dangerous. I’m so, so sorry, Tony."

Tony took a few shallow breaths to try to calm himself down.

"Okay… if that's what you want…"

He was lying, of course.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you really thought Tony was telling the truth, then shame on you. Really. I may have destroyed the character of Tony Stark but I didn't turn him into an anti-Tony.


	15. Okay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He took it in baby steps.

May 17, 2025

Tony stood outside of Bruce's apartment. Well, stood in the parking lot, inside of his car, looking up at the penthouse. After years and years of not seeing him, after wondering whether or not he was dead or alive, after searching high and low for the world's most elusive man, he had found him. And for once, he wasn't sure if he even wanted to see him.

He took it in baby steps.

He was outside of the car.

He locked the car.

He walked to the front of the complex.

He stepped into the complex.

He walked up to the receptionist desk.

He asked where Dr. Bruce Banner was.

She wrote down a room number.

He went to the elevator. 

He went to the fifth floor.

He walked down the hallway.

He found the correct apartment.

And then he froze with his hand about to bang on the door.

It's eleven p.m. He'd been driving for five hours. He was exhausted. Looked like a mess. Probably hadn't slept in a week. Okay, maybe more. Planning this whole trip was tiring. But he wanted it perfect, even if he was nervous that Bruce would just kick him out or leave himself or just not be happy to see Tony. But god damn it, it was Bruce's birthday. Tony didn't want to miss it.

Shaking, he lightly rapped on the door. The second his hand touched the door, it opened. To his surprise, it wasn't Bruce. It was a young woman who looked like a house keeper.

"May I help you?" She said as she wheeled a cart out from the door. She looked like she was just leaving.

"Um… is Bruce Banner here?"

"Mr. Banner lives here, but he isn’t home at the moment. He doesn't come home until very late." She said. She looked at Tony in a peculiar way. "You look very familiar…"

"Well, I'm Tony Stark." He said. That usually didn’t work as well as it used to when his company wasn't bankrupt and he actually owned it and ran it, but lately people don’t recognize him. "Look… do you think you could let me in?"

She looked at him a little bit more.

"Sure… go right ahead…" her face seemed to look like she recognized him, yet still slightly confused. He didn't think about it too much.

"Thank you. Really." He wasn't sure how well it was that a house keeper was letting someone she didn’t know into someone's house without their permission, but he didn’t care, seeing as that was his key into Bruce's apartment.

God, Tony was tired.

He walked around the apartment a little bit. It was average sized. A small living room with a couch and TV, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom. The living room had a table with some decoration on it, and the Tony realized why the house keeper let him in.

There was only three pictures on the table, and Tony assumed they were the only pictures in the apartment, and they were of him and Bruce.

She didn’t recognize Tony because he was Tony. She recognized him as being the only person Bruce had pictures of.

It really meant a lot to Tony.

He walked back to Bruce's bedroom. It was plane. One large bed, a dresser, and an end table.

The bed looked so soft… Tony was so tired… he decided on his own that Bruce wouldn’t mind him taking a nap. At least until he got back.

He took of his shoes, got under the covers and made himself comfortable.

\--

Bruce walked into his new apartment around midnight. He set down his things in the living room, and then was slightly startled.

His bedroom door was open, and he almost swore he heard a faint snoring coming from inside.

This better not be who I think it is…

He slowly and quietly walked to his room and looked inside. Sure enough, Tony Stark was sound asleep in his bed.

It was actually quite a nice picture.

Tony looked so calm while he was sleeping…

Everything that Bruce had told himself to keep himself away from Tony was forgotten at this sight. 

He quietly took off his shoes and climbed into the bed with Tony.

He could tell the movement stirred Tony slightly awake. 

"Bruce…?" Tony said sleepily.

Bruce shifted around until he found a spot he was comfortable in. He stopped when he was on his side, facing Tony.

"Yeah. I'm here." he whispered.

He could see the slight worry in Tony's tired face.

"You… you probably want me to leave-"

"No." Bruce said, wrapping his arm around him and pulling him closer. "Stay here. Don't leave."

Tony let himself be wrapped up in Bruce. He lied his head on his shoulder and smiled. 

"If that's what you want."

"And for the record," Bruce said, smiling to himself as he started to stroke Tony's hair, "that's my side of the bed."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's fluffy ending. I don't care. I DO WHAT I WANT

**Author's Note:**

> Well, that's chapter one! This is proceeded by much more feels in the following chapters.


End file.
